A key focus of this blog is the history of Jacksons in Ireland. I am specially curious about those who may be related to Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915). His life is key to understanding how a dozen or so young men, sons of Irish tenant farmers, shaped the future of international banking in the Far East in the late 1800s. I also use this blog as a place for playful posts: book and restaurant reviews, recipes, and events in my life. WARNING: Note the date of each post. Some may be outdated.

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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Ngaio Marsh

Recently, I have been working on the various DARE family connections to business interests in the Far East. It is all part of building the picture of Sir Thomas JACKSON and his career at HSBC in the mid to late 1800s. Thanks to Peter Jamieson in England and Pamela Dare in Toronto, this quest has also introduced me to the mystery writer, Ngaio Marsh of New Zealand, one of the DARE's far flung relations. It turns out that Ngaio - Dame Ngaio - wrote 32 detective novels and is considered to be one of the four "Queens of Crime", the others being Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie . Oh, and I should mention she was also a crack theatre director.

In her autobiography, Black Beech and Honeydew, Ngaio mentions her great uncle Sir William Henry MARSH (1827-1906). He governed Hong Kong as a colonial administrator - twice. His first tenure started in March, 1882, and ended in March 1883, when Sir George Ferguson Bowen succeeded him as the 9th Governor of Hong Kong. His second tenure started in December 1885, and ended in April, 1887, when Major-General William Cameron succeeded him. Marsh Road in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island was named after him. Ngaio’s delightfully irreverent description of him also includes a reference to Sir Thomas JACKSON:

In Uncle William’s day [actually, William was her great-uncle] the Governor of Hong Kong – a Pope-Hennessey – was often absent and twice, for long stretches, Uncle William was called upon to administer the government of the Colony. Yellowing photographs portray him in knickerbockers and solar topee, seated rather balefully under a marquee among A.D.C.s in teapot attitudes and ladies with croquet mallets. One of his nieces (“Imported”, my father used to say, “for the purpose.”) was married to Thomas Jackson, the founder of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. (“Good Lord! They’ve stuck up a statue to Tom Jackson!”)

The Pope-Hennessey she refers to was Sir John Hope Hennessy, the 8th Governor of Hong Kong, born in 1834 in Co. Cork and Governor of Hong Kong 1877-1882. Hennessey's personal motto was summed up in his Three Grand Qualifications to Success: The first is audacity, the second is audacity, and the third is audacity. I suspect that Ngaio would have liked that one.

Ngaio’s father, Henry Edmund MARSH, also worked at HSBC. He was first sent to learn Chinese at London University and was then hired at the London office of HSBC. With his skills with Chinese in his educational kit bag, there was no question about where he was expected to go next. From here, aided perhaps by nepotic shoves, he was to mount into the upper reaches of Head Office. Instead, the poor lad had a bout of consumption, was sent to South Africa and ended up in New Zealand.

As Ngaio described it: Uncle William, now retired visited New Zealand where his brother-in-law had founded the Colonial Bank ... No sooner were my father’s feet planted on the ladder than, owing to political machinations, the Colonial Bank broke. Uncle William returned to England. My father got a clerkship in the Bank of New Zealand, and there remained until he retired. Ngaio's father's uncle would have assumed job-finding responsibilities since Henry's father, a London-based tea broker, had already died when Henry was still in his teens. Unfortunately, since I have no record of sisters for Sir William Henry MARSH, I haven’t a clue who the brother-in-law might have been. Perhaps someone will read this and then I can add it after the fact. NOTE: Sept 26, 2017. A family member got in touch with me today, and I now know that this was Henry McKENZIE, a brother of Williamina McKENZIE, wife of Sir William Henry MARSH.

Ngaio’s connection to the story is a farfetched one, coming as it does through her Grandmother Amy ALLEN (1842-1903) who was a sister of Whitworth ALLEN (1835-abt 1899) who in turn was a brother-in-law of Sir Thomas JACKSON (1841-1915). Whitworth’s wife, Whitworth's wife, Anna Maria DARE (1849-1931) was a sister of Amelia Lydia DARE (1851-1944), wife of Sir Thomas. It’s complicated, I know – so here is a family tree:

About Me

Author And Researcher. I am currently writing a book on the life of Sir Thomas Jackson. He was the son of tenant farmers, born just before the Famine in South Armagh, who was knighted because he not only lead HSBC into the 20th Century, but was also responsible for assisting with the funding of much of the economic development in China & Japan in the late 1800s. My first published book was "Some Become Flowers: Living with Dying at Home".